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A million little pieces | James Frey | Reviewed by Laura

Monday, 23 September 2013

James Frey wakes up on a plane having no recollection as to how he arrived there. He is missing some teeth, has a broken nose and a hole in his cheek - he is an alcoholic and a crack addict. He heads to a rehab centre, it's time to get sober or die.Now obviously I'm reading this a long time after the whole scandal as to how much of this story is true or real. I went into reading this book with an open mind, even if it's not all true why does it matter? It's a story and this author has been through a hell of a time to get to where he is now, so even if only the first 10 pages are true it doesn't matter - because he made it.This book is, heart-breaking, horrifying and compelling. There were parts of the book where it was so gruesome that I had to keep some a few paragraphs because I just couldn't read about how he got his teeth sorted without painkillers! This is what made this story what it was, it's brutal and to read it through the eyes of someone who has never experienced this kind of addiction - it's shocking to read.I can't say that I enjoyed reading it all, tales of rape, fights, killings, drugs and death are not the easiest to read about - however they didn't stopped me from reading the whole thing. What nearly stopped me from getting to the end was the lack of punctuation - the English language student in me was crying a little inside. I saw past it and carried on reading and did feel a strong connection with the main character, I did want him to do it, I wanted him to survive rehab and not give it and most of all I wanted him to live. I think if any book can made me feel a connection like that then it must be good!It's difficult to recommend this book to a certain type of book readers, because I find it hard to place it. I can only say that it's a book which will have an impact when you read it and make you see things very different. So give it a go.

4/5 stars

This post was written by regular reviewer Laura, get to know her here.Image from Goodreads

1 comment

Sorry laura, but I think it does matter. He lied and hoodwinked the readers into believing it was true. He went around a promoting his book as being part of the horrid misery lit genre on TV and radio shows eliciting sympathy from the general public. He is no worse than those people who pretend to be ill or pretend to have sick children and ask for money to help them survive. He took money under false pretences.